Tourism Waitaki appoints new chairman

Tourism Waitaki has announced Marcus Brown is the replacement for former chairperson Annabel Berry.

Mr Brown who has been standing in for Mrs Berry since she stood down from the role in August, was announced as the new chairman on November 10.

Back in May, Mr Brown stood down as chairman of the Whitestone Civic Trust, but he is looking forward to his new role.

“I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in and carrying on from where Annabel left off, she was doing a fantastic job and I hope to continue that.”

The new role is something he’s hoping he can master.

“I think it’s for a three year term, and then they hold elections, so I’m going to make sure I do my job so I last the full term.”

Mr Brown said it will be fantastic to work with Tourism Waitaki.

“Look at the fantastic Victorian Heritage celebrations at the weekend; Wendy Simpson did incredibly well with those, and Jason has been doing a fantastic job, and so has Ian who took over from Megan Howell.

“It’s pleasing to see Tourism Waitaki in healthy hands.”

Being chair of something is not easy, but Mr Brown is looking forward to taking on the role.

“It will be good, it won’t be easy at times, but I’ll be looking to build relationships and hopefully will get to sit back and not be involved too much.”

Mr Brown said one thing he will look at working on is making sure most of the Alps 2 Ocean cycle track is away from the road.

“Ideally we want all of it to be off the road, so this is something I will work on.”

He’s confident that his background in tourism back in England will assist him..